246. He Showed Us The Other Side

2 Timothy 1:10

What really happens when you die? Is it scary? Is it disorienting? Will we sense stuff? And if so, which senses? (Surely not smell, right?) All the things people usually say about dying sound like nonsense to me. “Follow the light” and all that. I guess the main problem with thinking about what it will be like to actually die is that no one who does it ever comes back to tell you what it’s like. There is no round trip ticket for that one. Death is unknown. That final moment of crossing over is really kind of the great unknown. And it’s a weird unknown because at some point, everyone does it, even though no one has any idea what it’s like. I think the unknown quality of the whole business is what makes it so scary. We’re afraid and we don’t know why because we don’t know what all there is to fear. That is, we’re afraid until we get to know Jesus. He changes the whole game! He says that for people who believe in Him, dying isn’t really even like dying. He calls it “falling asleep.” He says it’s not an occasion to wail and moan in hopeless desperation about. He says when we do it we’ll be with Him forever. In fact, Jesus says simply knowing Him is “eternal life” - wow. Jesus didn’t just tell us about death and reassure us about it, but He also died and then came back! Paul says that Jesus “destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light.” In other words, He pulled back the curtain on the great unknown and showed us it’s going to be just fine. We have nothing to be afraid of.